displaCy.py

displaCy.py is a NLP visualizer. It's a Python port of displaCy.js. It can be used to visualize POS relationships detected using spaCy's syntactic parser.

Using displacy.py

from displacy import Displacy
import spacy

nlp = spacy.load('en')
doc = nlp('Visualise spaCy\'s guess at the syntactic structure of a sentence. '
          'Arrows point from children to heads, and are labelled by their relation type.')

Displacy.collapse_doc(doc)

d = Displacy({'wordDistance': 130,
              'arcDistance': 40,
              'wordSpacing': 30,
              'arrowSpacing': 10})
print(d.render(Displacy.words_and_arcs(doc)))

To use with libraries other than spaCy, see the Displacy.words_and_arcs() method on what input the render() method expects.

The following settings are available:

Setting	Description	Default
wordDistance	distance between words in px	200
arcDistance	distance between arcs in px	60
offsetX	spacing on left side of the SVG in px	50
arrowSpacing	spacing between arrows in px to avoid overlaps	20
arrowWidth	width of arrow head in px	10
arrowStroke	width of arc in px	2
wordSpacing	spacing between words and arcs in px	75
font	font face for all text	'inherit'
color	text color, HEX, RGB or color names	'#000000'
bg	background color, HEX, RGB or color names	'#ffffff'

Changing the theme and colours

You can find the current theme settings in /assets/css/displacy.css. All elements contained in the SVG output come with tags and data attributes and can be styled flexibly using CSS. By default, the currentColor of the element is used for colouring,meaning only need to change the color property in CSS.

The following classes are available:

Class name	Description
.displacy-word	word text
.displacy-tag	POS tag
.displacy-token	container of word and POS tag
.displacy-arc	arrow arc (without label or arrow head)
.displacy-label	relation type (arrow label)
.displacy-arrowhead	arrow head
.displacy-arrow	container of arc, label and arrow head

Additionally, you can use these attributes as attribute selectors:

Attribute	Value	On Element
data-tag	POS tag value	.displacy-token, .displacy-word, .displacy-tag
data-label	relation type value	.displacy-arrow, .displacy-arc, .displacy-arrowhead, .displacy-label
data-dir	direction of arrow	.displacy-arrow, .displacy-arc, .displacy-arrowhead, .displacy-label

Using a combination of those selectors and some basic CSS logic, you can create pretty powerful templates to style the elements based on their role and function in the parse. Here are a few examples:

/* Format all words in 12px Helvetica and grey */

.displacy-word {
    font: 12px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
    color: grey;
}


/* Make all noun phrases (tags that start with "NN") green */

.displacy-tag[data-tag^="NN"] {
    color: green;
}


/* Make all right arrows red and hide their labels */

.displacy-arc[data-dir="right"],
.displacy-arrowhead[data-dir="right"] {
    color: red;
}

.displacy-label[data-dir="right"] {
    display: none;
}


/* Hide all tags for verbs (tags that start with "VB") that are NOT the base form ("VB") */

.displacy-tag[data-tag^="VB"]:not([data-tag="VB"]) {
    display: none;
}


/* Only display tags if word is hovered (with smooth transition) */

.displacy-tag {
    opacity: 0;
    transition: opacity 0.25s ease;
}

.displacy-word:hover + .displacy-tag {
    opacity: 1;
}

Adding custom data attributes

displaCy lets you define custom attributes via the JSON representation of the parse on both words and arcs:

"words": [
    {
        "tag": "NNS",
        "text": "Robots",
        "data": [
            [ "custom", "your value here" ],
            [ "example", "example text here" ]
        ]
    }
]

Custom attributes are added as data attributes prefixed with data-, so their names shouldn't contain spaces or special characters. If added to words, the data attributes are attached to the token (.displacy-token), if added to arcs, they're attached to the arrow (.displacy-arrow):

<text class="displacy-token" data-custom="your value here" data-example="example text here">...</text>